This will probably be my last post of 2003. I am off to Limerick tomorrow to spend christmas with the family. Then its Kerry and mountaineering with the UCD MC. I am looking forward to the break. One Christmas tradition that ends this year though is the trip to see the Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King was excellent. But there will be no more christmas excitement after 3 great years. Ah well, I suppose I can look forward to the extended edition next November.

Now before I go, spare a thought for Steve. Steve stuck a note into every letter box in my building over the weekend saying he had mislaid his digital camera at a party in the building. And if anyone found it could they contact him. Otherwise his girlfriend will kill him or he will have to leave the country for 6 months! Oh dear Steve. What was on that camera…..

Happy Christmas to all!

I had another letter from the Dail last night about electronic voting. Michael McDowell (also our Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform) tells me he “shares my concerns”, and the PDs are looking into this whole area (odd, considering that as members of the government they presumably approved the system in the first place). So 2/4 responses received. Where are the soldiers of density and the tree huggers?

Return of the King
I am off to see the Return of the King tonight. Ah, the end of a lovely journey. But I suppose I can look forwrd to the extended edition next Christmas. And there is the possibility of Peter Jackson doing the Hobbit in the future. I was in the cinema yesterday for the saddo purpose of watching the extended versions of the first two Lord of the Rings films. And there was a trailer for Troy. So if you don’t get your fill of huge numbers of people charging at each other with swords, then there is another film coming for you real soon now. Did I hear someone say “bandwagon”?

Yesterday I posted a message saying that none of my T.D.s had responded to my email on electronic voting. Well, this is a retraction. When I got home there was a letter waiting for me from Ruairi Quinn. He appologised for the delay in getting back to me and enclosed some literature. He also passed my message to Eamon Gimore their environmental spokesman. I didn’t expect to change the world. I just wanted to make my opinions heard and to see do my representatives listen. So kudos to Deputy Quinn. Lets see now if any of the others will respond.

Its Lord of the Rings week. The final film is out on Wednesday and I have tickets. And I also have tickets for screenings of the extended editions of the first two films tomorrow as well. Amin’t I sad? But its been a great journey, and it looks like Peter Jackson has managed to show that you can turn out three films without the quality going steadily down hill (or at best being very mixed). I said I would give my comments on the Two Towers later so…
From watching the extended editions and listening to the main commentaries you get a better understanding of why the story developed the way it did. And while there is a sense that Jackson and the writers (Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are a little apologetic, they defend their decisions on the grounds that they have to show character development and drama. And I will accept all of that. But I still don’t like when it is done with an obvious cheesy movie cliché. Remember, in a film if you don’t see a body, the character IS NOT DEAD!

Spare a thought for the man who sent a text message to Ryan Tubridy’s breakfast radio show this morning. He wanted to know what to say to his 2 year old son who thinks the Americans have arrested Santa.

UPDATES: I sent 4 e-mails to my TDs on the proposed electronic voting system being introduced nationwide next year. And a week and a half on, none of them have even acknowledged receipt of the mail. Hooray for democracy! I think not.
See the update above

I checked the Fitzwilliam Index for December. There has been a slight improvement in economic figures from 19 down to 18.

Well I guess the feast of conspicuous consumption is in full swing now. I had to drop a small fortune on Christmas cards this morning. And there will be writers cramp this evening. Bah Humbug. My efforts to get something for Laura have been thwarted twice already by the items in question being sold out. My life will not be worth living if I don’t find a fall back real soon!

If you are looking for something different for someone, there is always Think Geek though they are in the US and so subject to VAT and customs fees when stuff enters the EU. But if you want something really different then how about an Infectious Disease Tie. I am okay on this front btw. I’d rather a Pyrex beaker mug.

I was up late last night getting more frustrated with trying to sync my Palm with Evolution under Linux. (Can anyone help me?) But I was listening to Donal Dineen on Today FM and I heard some great music. Fortunately Donal sticks his play lists up on the net. This is a great idea for spotting decent music, and I wish more stations would do the same. Now I just have to remember what was the name of the track that I liked.

I was out on the UCD club hike yesterday over Seefin and Kippure. It was an excellent day with cold clear weather, if a little breezy. Even crossing the bog between the two mountains wasn’t too bad. But the highlight had to be visiting the passage grave on top of Seefin.

The grave is located in a large mound of stones about 10m in diameter and 2-3m high. The entrance is through a narrow doorway about 1m high and 30cm wide.

There is a 5m passage aligned north-south (through two small anti-chambers) leading the main grave chamber. The corbelled roof to this collapsed in antiquity so you can enter the grave from the rear as well.

The main chamber has three small alcoves off it where the funeral remains and grave goods would have been stored. You can see two of these here on the left and right (partially filled with rubble).

Its sublime to be able to experience these monuments of another age. This grave is estimated to be 5000 years old. And it gives a presence in this time to its builders who would have otherwise been long forgotten by history.

Apart from the hill walk it was a good weekend. I was at the cinema on Friday to see Master and Commander. It comes well recomended and Laura enjoyed it too. Saturday night was a big screen presentation of the Two Towers in Ciaran’s place. This is part of our revision for the Return of the King in a week or two. And then last night after the hike Laura and I went to the Diep Noodle bar in Ranelagh for dinner. Its a little pricey but the food was great and the portions left you full when you left the table.

A gang of us from work were out last night celebrating Sean Kealy’s departure from the firm. There are some drunken blurry photos here.

Now over the course of the night a major question arose which lead to heated debate. So I felt it would be a good idea to put up a poll to see what the rest of the world thinks on this one. The question was:

You have a partner (boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse) for some time. And they leave you for someone else. Which is worse, if they leave you for someone of the same sex, or for someone of a different sex?

There was a major difference of opinion on this, split by gender. For guys 6/8 felt is was better for their girlfriend to leave them for another woman (same sex). But 3/4 girls felt they would rather their boyfriends left them for another girl (different sex) than for another bloke.

So here is the poll. Because of the gender split I have put up two, one for guys (on the right) and one for girls (on the left). Please only vote in one and I will agregate the results as needed. I will also post up the best comments.

Bad news these won’t work with the new blogging software. So the results were: 100% of Guys preferred to find out their girlfriend was a lesbian and leaving them for another woman. 66% of Girls would prefer that their boyfriend was straight and left them for another woman that became gay and left them for another man.

I took my occasional trip to the Blood Donor clinic this afternoon. Trip 15 for me. Not bad for someone who normally is squeamish about medical things. If it weren’t for the fact that I am a little light headed afterwards I would bounce out of there feeling good about myself Since they moved to D’Olier street a bonus of the visit is the view down O’Connell street from their tea room:

Democracy in action
The date for the local and European elections was announced yesterday. These will be sometime in June next year. But I also heard that they are planning to extend electronic voting to all polling stations at that time. In theory its a great idea (faster, more accurate, easier to use) but there are fundamental problems with the implementation. The two main ones from my point of view are that the source code for the system is not open, and secondly how do you know the vote you cast is the one recorded. So I am planning to ask the 4 TDs for my constituency (Dublin South East) what their position on this is.

I am as much interested in seeing how many of them respond to my mail. Previously I sent e-mails to the 4 Dublin City Councillors for my ward (Rathmines) about junk mail. Cllr. Mary Freehill (Labour) and Cllr. Ryan Meade (Green) responded and asked questions. The other two representatives, Ald. Michael Donnelly (Fianna Fail) and Cllr . Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael), didn’t even bother to acknowledge the mails I sent. So lets see how responsive my TDs are.

The mail that I sent is here.

It was one of those brilliantly cold mornings today. Everywhere had a dusting of white from the frost, and the clear skies meant it remained cold and very bright. My favourite kind of morning.

On the walk in, while watching for lingering patches of ice and smiling at the people freshly turned out in the jackets last used when they were skiing in March, I came up with my index for how the economy is doing. I walk to work down Fitzwilliam street (technically F.W. Place, then F.W. Square and F.W. Street Upper and Lower) where the Georigian houses have almost all been converted to offices. And this is prime small service business territory (legal firms, engineers, tech training companies and the like). So I thought that the number of “For Rent” and “For Sale” signs would be a good indicator of how the economy is doing these days. During the heady boom times of a year or two ago there were only one or two signs up advertising available office space. But I can reveal that today in our less prosperous times there are 19. I’ll keep an occasional eye out to see how things are doing in the coming months.

My trip to Waterford went well. As always Bryan (who will not pass on his site address) gave us a good night out. While queuing for Ruby’s night club 5 girls tried to queue jump. I wasn’t having any of it and when they refused to move I called a bouncer. To my surprise he kicked the lot of them to the back of the queue. Usually doormen don’t care. So kudos to the Waterford doormen! Mind your I spent the rest of the evening worrying about getting glassed

Now that its December 1st I am willing to allow Christmas preparations begin. So here is my Christmas wish list for those stuck trying to decide what to get me.

I watched the extended edition of the Two Towers on Friday as well. Its a better film that the original, and Mr Jackson you have redeemed yourself. But I will go into it in detail in another post
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